Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War

The second title in Sebastian Faulks' French trilogy, and appearing in various polls as one of Britain's favorite novels, this 1993 book has been adapted for radio, stage, and now television, in a joint production for the BBC and PBS's Masterpiece. Spanning three generations, from World War I to the 1970s, it follows the young Englishman Stephen Wraysford as he passes through a tempestuous love affair with Isabelle Azaire in France and enters the horrific, surreal world beneath the trenches of No Man's Land.

"Worthy in every way of its honors and success.... The accounts of combat, ringing with credibility and authenticity, are among the finest that I have ever read."—LATBR